Cartridge-belt.



No. 654,475. Patented July 24, |900. A. MILLS & T. c. ommcmFF.`

CARTRIDGE BELT.

(Applicaion led Nay 8, 1900.)

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rre STATES PATENT Fries."-

ANSON MILLS, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, AND THOMAS C.

ORNDORFF, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS;i

l CARTRIDGE-BELT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 654,475, dated J' uly 24, *1900.`

Appiimitniedivnys,1900. siriano. 15.971. (roman.)

To a/ZZ whom it may concern:

Be itknown that we, ANSON MILLS, of the United States Army,retired, residing in Washington city, in the District of Columbia, and THOMAS C. ORNDORFF, of Worcester, in the county of Worcester and State of Massachusetts7 citizens of the United States, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Cartridge-Belts, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to'y that kind of cartridge-belt or bandoleer in which the body of the belt is provided Withpockets for the reception of cartridges, and it has more Vparticular reference to a beltof this kind which is'made of woven material having the body of the belt and the thimbles or pockets woven integral or in one. In the practicaluse'of these belts or bandoleers it has been found that at times the cartridges are liable to dropoutfrom their pockets, particularly when the cartridges, as is now largely the case in the military service, are held together by clips or otherwise arranged in bunches or groups of five for use in connection with the regulation magazine or other rifle. It is the object of our invention to remove this liability without impeding easy access to the cartridges, so that While the cartridges are held safe in the belt under all service conditions, yet they can be easily got at whenever they are needed.`

To this end our improvement consists in providing a woven-fabric belt of the kind above specified with a covering-flap for the cartridge-pockets, which flap is also woven integral and in one with the body of the belt, fastening devices being preferably provided by which the free edge of the flap when turned down over the cartridge-pockets can be secured, so as to render it impossible for the cartridges to escape from their places on or in the belt.

The nature of our invention and the manner in which the same is or may be carried into effect will be understood from the accompanyin g drawings, in which-- Figure l is a view of a belt or bandoleer embodying our invention in its preferred form, the belt being in extended position and filled with cartridges and the covering-flap `flap turned down Iover the cartridges and fastened, a portion of the iiap fleeing broken away to expose the cartridge-pockets beneath. Fig. 3 is a section on line 8 3, Fig.

1. Fig. tis a section on line et 4, Fig. 2; Fig.

5 is a diagrammatic cross-section, on greatlyenlarged scale, designed to show how the fabric may be made.V In this figure the threads are shown Widely sparatedhfrom each other, so that the weaving may be better followed.

Our invention, as before said, is applicable to any woven-fabric belt in which the cartridge-pockets are integral with thevbod y of the belt. yThe `particular belt in connection with which our invention is illustrated in the drawings is that which is the subject of the prior patent of. Thomas C. Orndorff, one of the applicants herein, No. 399,924, of March 19, l889-that is to say, a belt composedof a multiply fabric provided with cartridge-pockets integraltherewith,- formed by the plies'and closed along one edge of the fabric. i

The body of the belt is composed of two plies, which at intervals A are united by binders or binder-Warps and made into one fabric, the parts B of the plies between these solid portionsA being loose or separate from one another, so as to form pockets. These pockets may be of a size to receive individual cartridges, as at M, or clips or bunches of cartridges, as at N.

The manner ofweaving the fabric is fully described in the patent above named, so far as concerns the pockets and the body of the belt, and the manner of weaving the same, together with the covering-flap, will be readily understood by reference to Fig.' 5.

The flap is woven as an extension of thefiuner ply or that ply Whichis next to the person of the user of the belt. For this purpose the inner ply might be woven iiat in one extended sheet of sufIiciently-greater Width being unfolded and turned back from over u s lettered g.

5 designed to weave belts of the usual width.

We therefore prefer .to weave the belt as a three-ply fabric, which in the loom has in cross-section a shape approximating that of a attened S, as seen in Fig. 5. v

In the figures the Warps of the outer ply a:

are lettered a b, those of the inner ply y are lettered c d, and the binder-warps,which holdv together the two plies and make them into one fabric between the pockets, are lettered e f. The warps of the third and last plya, which is to form the flap, are lettered h t'. The weftis The Wef t g is thrown by the shuttle in the usual way through the Warp-sheds of the three plies successively, starting, for

that` edge of the fabric on which the open ends or mouths ofthe pockets are to be, and thence traveling to the opposite edge, thence through the warp-shed of the inner ply y to through the warp-shed of the third or iap a, and thence back through the last-nam ed shed and the other two sheds successively to the starting-point, and so on. In this way the belt is Woven with pockets formed by the two plies open at one end and closed at the other, With a solid doubleply fabric between the pockets and with an extension on the inner ply along the edge of the belt where the mouths or open ends of the pockets are located, which forms a covering-flap for these open ends.

The cartridges when inserted in place cause the pockets to bulge, thus giving the body of the belt a wavy outline in longitudinal section. The effect of this is to shorten the body of the belt sufficiently to allow the covering-Hap (which although it is of only the `same absolute length as the inner ply of the body of the belt is not crimped or corrugated like that ply) to be folded over and down smoothly upon the outer face of the belt, which outer face when the belt is bent i-nto circular or oval form (as it is when worn over instance, in the shed of the outer ply fr from the edge from which it first started, thence the shoulders or around the waist) will be of greater diameterthan the inner face,`

The invention may be used `in connection with cartridge-belts having two'l layers of cartridge pockets or thimbles, as described in said Orndorffs patent, No. 507,836, of October 3l, 1.893-f ,In such event the flap can have imparted to it `the increased fullness requisite to permit it to fold over smoothly upon the two layers of pockets, Weaving it with more picks than the body fabric of the belt, as will be understood by those skilled in the art without further explanation.

Any suitable means for fastening the iiap down-over the cartridges may be employed. We may use for the purpose simply rawhide thongs t, secured at intervals to the free edge of the llap, and eyelets 4s at like inter-l vals on the fabric body of the belt, through which the thongs can be passed and knotted, or there may be buttonholestrips u on the flap to engage buttons or studs/U on the belt. Having described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-' A multiply-fabric cartridge-belt provided with cartridge-pockets formed by the plies and With an extension ofthe inner ply along one edge of the fabric forming a coveringiiap adapted to be folded over and down upon the pockets, both pockets and flap being integral, and formed in one, with the body of the belt, as and for the purposes hereinbefore set forth.

ln testimony whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names to the foregoing speci icationin the presence'of the subscribing Witnesses.

ANSON MILLS.' THOMAS C. ORNDORFF. Witnesses as to the signature of Anson Mills:

EWELL A. Dick, EDWIN KING LUNDY. Witnesses as to the signature of Thomas C. Orndorff:

H. H. LEARY, L. E. HOLDEN. 

